Image via Niles Garrison

By Niles Garrison, Staff Writer  

The world’s most popular sport is back at Morehouse College. After years of no competitive soccer at the college, the sport has made its long-awaited return, and is here to stay. With the help of Dr. Illya Davis and the five captains of the soccer club (Tommy Mesamours, Shawn Ross, Enosh Mutenda, Amari Bowman, and Esaias Ester) the intramural soccer club was brought back to life. 

“It is important to bring soccer back,” Mesamours said. 

He is the president and co-founder of the Morehouse Soccer Club. 

“It’s important to bring it back because in the black community, it’s not as prevalent,” he said.

The Morehouse Soccer Club returned with a new look and mission for the team. 

The club’s instagram bio states their goal is to “create an environment of academic, health, and competitive excellence and represent ourselves positively through a heart of service.” 

The club seems to already be following through with its mission, according to team member an McIntyre.  

“I like to let off steam and stress through soccer so it’s definitely a positive outlet,” he said.  

“We’ve been working with Soccer in the Streets to expose younger kids in the West End to the game and we have more planned in the coming months,” Ross said, co-founder and captain of the Morehouse Soccer Club.

The club began its new season with tryouts that were held on Sept. 13 – 15. The turnout included 49 people, including three women, were added to the team excluding the five captains.  

The captains separated the players into two teams: Team A and Team B. 

Members of Team A will have opportunities to play in the club’s future tournaments and are expected to have full commitment to the team. Members of Team B are those who are still developing and show potential. Team B will also have chances to play in the club’s future tournaments. 

“I’m excited for the Soccer club, because I truly just love the game and I want to play with my boys,” Joshua Tuboku-Metzger said, a player on Team B. 

Mesamours also spoke on his personal goals of creating a good environment for his players and himself. 

“We are all about health, so we want our athletes to not only have a good time but are also healthy in the things that they do,” Mesamours said.  

Recently, Morehouse Soccer Club participated in their first competition, The Cup of Nations tournament on Sept. 30. They played against Georgia State University’s African Student Association Team where they lost 3-2 and were knocked out of the tournament.  

“A lot more things need to be addressed,” Ross said. “With it being our first competition, it served as a nice litmus test of where we are physically and mentally and how we can improve in both of those.” 

The Morehouse Soccer Club is open to all of those who want to play soccer casually or competitively. The hope is to one day be NCAA regulated and have many students in B.T Harvey Stadium.

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